Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Parent-Teacher Conference

Whoa... SO if you are using Blogger I would check out who is following your blog. There were three that freaked me out... BOOO. I blocked them and wondered HOW long these freaks have been following my blog. Makes me want to never share a photo again...

On to bigger and better things. I went to our first parent-teacher conference. K stayed home with the kids. We are functional like that. It was great report. M Bug is doing really well. They are smidgen behind due to the class sizes at the beginning of the school year but in all M Bug knows his stuff. The thing that most surprised me is how well M Bug did with Math. He essentially knew the answers to addition and subtraction problems without counting it out or using his fingers! How many are left if we take four away from ten? Six, he spouted off like it that is a natural thing for him to know. Shocked the shit out of me. Then again I still add and subtract on my fingers. SO glad he gets his mathematical skills from other parts of the genetic pool!

His teacher said he is doing well with reading and writing. It is pretty cool to see the progression. M Bug has never had trouble with writing. You can clearly read his name even on the first day of school. It was much cooler to see his first and last name this time. He is so proud of this. His handwriting book was neat to see. He is definitely getting faster at writing words and does not ask as many questions about letters, he just knows them. He getting better at upper and lower case letters. He is ready to move past the first 36 sight words and she felt he probably could do the next 100 and even 200 sight words after that.

I just generally got to bend his teacher's ear and, be something that is unusual for me, I got to totally helicopter over my kid. She said he is great kid, does well in class, yada yada yada. SO I bent her ear about how he is at home. Of course, I expected some upheaval after school as he was letting off steam but man oh man Matthew is all boy but he is (shhhh) a sensitive boy. Things bother him and he bottles it up until it explodes in ways that no one would ever expect of him. He screams, he hits, he throws things, he rips apart his room, he wets himself... it is pure torture for him and us. It makes me infinitely sad for him, that he is beyond help from me or K. That he cannot talk to us about things for whatever reason. That he is so young and that being young is flippin' hard.

His teacher and I talked about what has enraged M Bug lately. It is surrounding school and kids in his class. M Bug wants to be friends with everyone, even the mean kids. He doesn't get the mean kids and yet he wants to embrace them. "Means kids" in this case include kids that push and shove and pinch in places they should not and use mean words against other kids. It has been a hard adjustment for all of us in that regard.

I am working at asking better questions of M Bug. I am working at being lighter in the afternoons and not coming home with own little dark clouds over my head after being at work. I am working on knowing when M Bug needs a break and when things are going smoothly. We are working on getting M Bug to share more, talk more. He's always been a quiet kid about things, even good things. That is hard as a parent because I want to know and help. I have let go of so much the past couple of years. I cannot protect him from everything nor do I want to. But I can try to help him learn to deal with issues in the right way.

He has some good buddies that are go to kids in his class. I am glad we have made friends with the family down the way and the friendship is mutual for the kids. I know he is aware of kids who are mean and kids who are not. I know he is trying with all of heart to be comfortable in certain situations that would leave even best of us UNcomfortable. I know there will be ups and downs, some more intense then others. I know this but it is hard to sit on my hands and try to let M Bug figure some of it out on his own.

Trust me, I am proud of M Bug. I am spectacularly proud of the report I received from his teacher, that he is doing well and learning and loving it all. For the bad moments, we have mainly had fantastic moments and M Bug loves school. He loves art and music and library time and circle time and his "weekly classroom job". Mostly that is what I want for M Bug, I want him to love school, always. I hope he always loves his teacher and wants to learn and tries hard. I hope he always tries to be friends with everyone in a good way. I hope that it is better then my experiences were.

In all, during the first grading period (weird to say for Kindergarten?!), he is doing great! And we are working through any lingering issues. And I am a proud Momma hen!

About Me

Bug #1: M Bug

He is a character - he loves to tell jokes and dance around like a goofball shaking his rump!

Hanging with his buddies

Playing computer games and board games - he is fiercely competitive

He will sit down and read a book cover to cover as quickly as possible

His fear of storms is still a huge part of our lives - he's a worrier

BUT he kind of loves the weather and science

School - he really loves school; his teachers have all told me if they could have a classroom filled with kids like him their jobs would be easy!

Bug #2: Missy

She is eight!

She is in grade three

Anything M Bug is doing much to his annoyance

She is a crafty artsy little soul - she will draw pictures and wants to write stories out of the blue

She will wear a dress while playing basketball with scrapes on her knees and a bow in her hair - a girl after my own heart!Sports include softball and hockey

She is a Girl Scout and proud of it!

She is tough as nails when she needs to be

She loves to be the absolute center of attention giggling and grinningGirl has a wicked smile and lights up a room with her giggleShe is ALL fiery red head!She is hard headed and won't kindly accept help and yet in the same breath she can be as sweet as can be

She's a talker - I have no idea where she gets that from...

Lucy and Bolt

They are DOGS of our house. Lucy is an 13 year old black & white mutt lab terrier (WHAT?!) mix that we rescued from the pound when we first moved into town. She is the sweetest most kindest dog I have ever known in my entire life.

Bolt's age is sort up in the air. Let's say 8-ish?? He is a terrier mix (Chihuahua maybe?) that we brought home from the same pound just about two years ago. He looks a lot like a JRT and acts like one too. He is mostly white with some black and tan. He thinks he rules the house but little does he know Queen Lucy is in charge. That crazy guy sleeps like a human with his head on a pillow and the covers pulled to his chin (no shit!) and talks to us when he wants to eat - woof, growl woof ;) He's filled the spot in our hearts that sweet Santana left when he died and we could not be happier he came to live in our home with us!